BillyShears
Well-Known Member
OB1 said:
Agreeing with me is a surefire sign you know your football and have a level head. :)
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Manuel Pellegrini (cont)
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Agreeing with me is a surefire sign you know your football and have a level head. :)
cleavers
Moderator
One other thing we need to do, and I hope its the major focus between now and Saturday evening, is start doing basic stuff correctly, you know stuff like defending, marking, passing, shooting, crossing, none of which were remotely good enough last night from the 3rd minute onwards, or against Newcastle.OB1 said:I think we need to get the combination of Yaya, Silva, Nasri and Aguero together a.s.a.p. with Yaya or Silva playing off Aguero (Dzeko and Jovetic are just too shit to mention at the moment),
TGR
Well-Known Member
cleavers said:Its definitely you, I've just checked the moderator log, and the last post deleted from this thread was at 11:06 today, and it was deleted by the person that posted it. None previous to that in 24 hours.TGR said:Is it me or do posts keep miraculously keep disappearing of this thread?
It's been a very interesting day - that it has! ;-)
So stop WUMming.
Bloody hell Cleavers - calm down fella!
It was a genuine question. Thanks for the answer.
Chiil out man. Genuinely chill.
cleavers
Moderator
Why do I need to "chill" exactly ? You asked a question, I answered it honestly, why did you try and claim we were deleting posts exactly ? was it an attempt at mod bashing perhaps ? I think its you that should follow your own advice.TGR said:Bloody hell Cleavers - calm down fella!
It was a genuine question. Thanks for the answer.
Chiil out man. Genuinely chill.
chris85mcfc
Well-Known Member
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So what conclusion have we drawn from todays posts in this thread?
Lack of confidence
Lack of quality
Poor management
Poor attitude
Poor form
Lack of hunger and desire
I find it worrying that we couldn't turn up in a must win game at home against a second rate side
Lack of confidence
Lack of quality
Poor management
Poor attitude
Poor form
Lack of hunger and desire
I find it worrying that we couldn't turn up in a must win game at home against a second rate side
cleavers
Moderator
Pretty well all of the above last night chris.chris85mcfc said:So what conclusion have we drawn from todays posts in this thread?
Lack of confidence
Lack of quality
Poor management
Poor attitude
Poor form
Lack of hunger and desire
I find it worrying that we couldn't turn up in a must win game at home against a second rate side
BillyShears
Well-Known Member
cleavers said:Pretty well all of the above last night chris.chris85mcfc said:So what conclusion have we drawn from todays posts in this thread?
Lack of confidence
Lack of quality
Poor management
Poor attitude
Poor form
Lack of hunger and desire
I find it worrying that we couldn't turn up in a must win game at home against a second rate side
I have to say, from my sofa in a foreign country, the one thing last night that was fantastic, was our supporters. Did the club proud.
Prestwich_Blue
Well-Known Member
Don't forget-chris85mcfc said:So what conclusion have we drawn from todays posts in this thread?
Lack of confidence
Lack of quality
Poor management
Poor attitude
Poor form
Lack of hunger and desire
The big screens
The new adverts on level 2
The new training ground
The hour going back
The works on the South Stand changing the micro-climate of the stadium and affecting the flight of the ball
The situation in Syria & Iraq.
OB1
Well-Known Member
I can't be certain how honest Pellers was being when he said he did not know why the team played so badly etc but I would be surprised if he did not have some ideas; ideas that he probably does not want to share with the general public.
As I happen to think that most of the problem is in the heads of the players, it could be hard to sort out and, ultimately, I think some serious reshaping of the squad will be required. However, the head can be worked on, this piece that I heard some mention yesterday morning is apposite:
By Daniel Schofield (Daily Telegraph)
When Colin Slade kicked a conversion with the last play of the game to give New Zealand a wholly undeserved 29-28 victory against Australia in Brisbane last month, it was described as a Houdini act. Yet even the Hungarian did not manage to extract himself from as many tight situations as the All Blacks have done in the past three years.
From Dan Carter’s dropped goal against Ireland in 2012 to Ryan Crotty’s try in Dublin against the same opposition a year later to Conrad Smith’s try in the first Test of England's tour this summer, the All Blacks have made a habit of winning at the death. In those games, New Zealand were far from their best, but as the clock ticked ever louder and with the pressure at its greatest, they found a way to win. That, in essence, is mental strength, a commodity rarely associated with the All Blacks down the years.
There have been only fleeting moments over the past 25 years in which New Zealand have not been recognised as the best team in the world. The trouble was that they could not justify that status at World Cups in which they crumbled under pressure, most notably against France in 1999 and 2007. Theirs was an unwanted but deserved reputation for choking until they ended 24 years of hurt and jibes by winning the World Cup on home soil in 2011.
That transformation occurred largely thanks to the influence of one man: Gilbert Enoka, a former international volleyball player turned PE teacher and now described by Steve Hansen, the New Zealand coach, as the “glue” who holds the All Blacks together.
Enoka had little background in rugby until Wayne Smith, the former All Black, started selling him PE equipment. They soon bonded, Enoka’s “obsession” with the mental side of sport piquing the interest of Smith, who invited Enoka into the New Zealand set-up in 2000.
Even though Smith departed and then returned as coach, Enoka became a close confidant to Graham Henry and then Hansen. Henry describes Enoka’s impact as “phenomenal”; Hansen as “magnificent”.
Enoka told The Telegraph that his role is “equipping our men with the tools to be able to perform under pressure — giving them the mental skills they need to be strong”. So how does he define pressure? “When everything is on the line and you have got to get a job done performing at the best you can at that particular moment,” Enoka said. “When the stakes are high, there’s high scrutiny, high expectations and the consequences are great. That’s pressure.”
The All Blacks’ ability to withstand such pressure is evident not only in the comebacks that they have mounted but in holding on to leads in closely fought games. Before their blowout victory against the US in Chicago on Saturday, nine of their previous 13 matches had been settled by eight points or fewer.
There was no greater test of their collective nerve than in the 2011 World Cup final against France. New Zealand played poorly but by far the most impressive aspect of their performance was their discipline in the final 10 minutes when the slightest transgression could have spelt four more years of choking accusations. Brad Thorn, the Leicester lock, says that the squad could not have coped with the pressure of a home World Cup without Enoka.
The antithesis of that performance had come four years earlier in a 20-18 quarter-final defeat by the same opponents in Cardiff. Quite simply they lost their heads. At that stage Enoka had already been working with the team for several years convincing sometimes sceptical players that they needed to exercise their mind just as much as any other muscle in their body. Nevertheless the French defeat showed Enoka how far they had to go.
So he sought outside help from Gazing Performance Systems, a British company that was initially set up to help sales companies. Gazing’s premise is that when you are thinking clearly and your attention is fully engaged you will make your best decisions, which it calls blue-head thinking. Conversely, when you are distracted and are experiencing intrusive thoughts, which might manifest itself in stress, frustration and anger, you are in a red-head mode.
“The brain is made up of three parts: instinct, emotion and thinking,” Enoka said. “What often happens under pressure is that the thinking shuts down so you are relying on emotion and instinct. That in turn means you can no longer pick up the cues and information to make good decisions.”
To pull yourself from red-head back to blue-head thinking you need to give yourself an anchor to refocus your attention. These anchors have to be immediately accessible but are different for each individual so Thorn would throw water over himself, Richie McCaw would stamp his feet, Kieran Read would stare at the farthest point in the stadium. All these strategies re-engage the player in the moment and back into blue-head mode.
It can be boiled down to thinking clearly under pressure, which is subtly but significantly different from Sir Clive Woodward’s mantra of thinking correctly under pressure (you need to think clearly before you can think correctly).
In Brisbane, Slade, the All Blacks’ fourth choice fly-half, had to eliminate the residual frustration he felt at having missed a penalty to the corner. He needed to focus on the match-winning conversion. “You use those techniques to separate yourself in moments like that and when you need to kick a winning goal then everything else is irrelevant — what’s happened before and what will happen in the future,” Slade said.
“At international level, it’s often not about skill or ability but having the head under pressure to be able to execute. Having a guy like Gilbert is probably why the All Blacks have been so successful in the last few years.”
Enoka’s influence extends far beyond his job title as mental skills coach. Wyatt Crockett, the loosehead prop, says the squad view Enoka, whom they call Bert, as the custodian of their culture, and Enoka argues mental strength is impossible without a strong culture. “To deal with pressure you need to make sure that landscape that everyone lives in and on is solid and sound and has got a blood flow through it that nourishes everyone powerfully. If you neglect nourishing who you are, where you come from and what you are about then you just become a team that operates skin deep; we have to be a team that operates bone deep.”
The All Blacks are unique compared to other teams, Enoka says, is in the transference of power from the coaches to the leadership group who set and enforce standards among the players. When aberrations occur, such as Aaron Cruden’s missed flight, a player is answerable to his team-mates rather than the coaches.
Ego has to be left at the door; there is a rigidly enforced “no d---head policy” in the squad and every player takes turns in sweeping the changing room clean after each game. “The jersey can hunt out flaws as quickly as you can look at it. The d***heads and the posers who are not genuine about adding to this wonderful legacy just don’t survive,” Enoka said. “They become one-Test ponies and get chewed up and spat out relatively quickly.
“As an All Black, you understand the team powers above the individual and you are part of a wider legacy, which has been passed down to you from the ages. In this particular period, it is your time and it is your moment. We want people to cherish and understand that and nourish it for the next generation, leaving it in a better place than what it was.”
As I happen to think that most of the problem is in the heads of the players, it could be hard to sort out and, ultimately, I think some serious reshaping of the squad will be required. However, the head can be worked on, this piece that I heard some mention yesterday morning is apposite:
By Daniel Schofield (Daily Telegraph)
When Colin Slade kicked a conversion with the last play of the game to give New Zealand a wholly undeserved 29-28 victory against Australia in Brisbane last month, it was described as a Houdini act. Yet even the Hungarian did not manage to extract himself from as many tight situations as the All Blacks have done in the past three years.
From Dan Carter’s dropped goal against Ireland in 2012 to Ryan Crotty’s try in Dublin against the same opposition a year later to Conrad Smith’s try in the first Test of England's tour this summer, the All Blacks have made a habit of winning at the death. In those games, New Zealand were far from their best, but as the clock ticked ever louder and with the pressure at its greatest, they found a way to win. That, in essence, is mental strength, a commodity rarely associated with the All Blacks down the years.
There have been only fleeting moments over the past 25 years in which New Zealand have not been recognised as the best team in the world. The trouble was that they could not justify that status at World Cups in which they crumbled under pressure, most notably against France in 1999 and 2007. Theirs was an unwanted but deserved reputation for choking until they ended 24 years of hurt and jibes by winning the World Cup on home soil in 2011.
That transformation occurred largely thanks to the influence of one man: Gilbert Enoka, a former international volleyball player turned PE teacher and now described by Steve Hansen, the New Zealand coach, as the “glue” who holds the All Blacks together.
Enoka had little background in rugby until Wayne Smith, the former All Black, started selling him PE equipment. They soon bonded, Enoka’s “obsession” with the mental side of sport piquing the interest of Smith, who invited Enoka into the New Zealand set-up in 2000.
Even though Smith departed and then returned as coach, Enoka became a close confidant to Graham Henry and then Hansen. Henry describes Enoka’s impact as “phenomenal”; Hansen as “magnificent”.
Enoka told The Telegraph that his role is “equipping our men with the tools to be able to perform under pressure — giving them the mental skills they need to be strong”. So how does he define pressure? “When everything is on the line and you have got to get a job done performing at the best you can at that particular moment,” Enoka said. “When the stakes are high, there’s high scrutiny, high expectations and the consequences are great. That’s pressure.”
The All Blacks’ ability to withstand such pressure is evident not only in the comebacks that they have mounted but in holding on to leads in closely fought games. Before their blowout victory against the US in Chicago on Saturday, nine of their previous 13 matches had been settled by eight points or fewer.
There was no greater test of their collective nerve than in the 2011 World Cup final against France. New Zealand played poorly but by far the most impressive aspect of their performance was their discipline in the final 10 minutes when the slightest transgression could have spelt four more years of choking accusations. Brad Thorn, the Leicester lock, says that the squad could not have coped with the pressure of a home World Cup without Enoka.
The antithesis of that performance had come four years earlier in a 20-18 quarter-final defeat by the same opponents in Cardiff. Quite simply they lost their heads. At that stage Enoka had already been working with the team for several years convincing sometimes sceptical players that they needed to exercise their mind just as much as any other muscle in their body. Nevertheless the French defeat showed Enoka how far they had to go.
So he sought outside help from Gazing Performance Systems, a British company that was initially set up to help sales companies. Gazing’s premise is that when you are thinking clearly and your attention is fully engaged you will make your best decisions, which it calls blue-head thinking. Conversely, when you are distracted and are experiencing intrusive thoughts, which might manifest itself in stress, frustration and anger, you are in a red-head mode.
“The brain is made up of three parts: instinct, emotion and thinking,” Enoka said. “What often happens under pressure is that the thinking shuts down so you are relying on emotion and instinct. That in turn means you can no longer pick up the cues and information to make good decisions.”
To pull yourself from red-head back to blue-head thinking you need to give yourself an anchor to refocus your attention. These anchors have to be immediately accessible but are different for each individual so Thorn would throw water over himself, Richie McCaw would stamp his feet, Kieran Read would stare at the farthest point in the stadium. All these strategies re-engage the player in the moment and back into blue-head mode.
It can be boiled down to thinking clearly under pressure, which is subtly but significantly different from Sir Clive Woodward’s mantra of thinking correctly under pressure (you need to think clearly before you can think correctly).
In Brisbane, Slade, the All Blacks’ fourth choice fly-half, had to eliminate the residual frustration he felt at having missed a penalty to the corner. He needed to focus on the match-winning conversion. “You use those techniques to separate yourself in moments like that and when you need to kick a winning goal then everything else is irrelevant — what’s happened before and what will happen in the future,” Slade said.
“At international level, it’s often not about skill or ability but having the head under pressure to be able to execute. Having a guy like Gilbert is probably why the All Blacks have been so successful in the last few years.”
Enoka’s influence extends far beyond his job title as mental skills coach. Wyatt Crockett, the loosehead prop, says the squad view Enoka, whom they call Bert, as the custodian of their culture, and Enoka argues mental strength is impossible without a strong culture. “To deal with pressure you need to make sure that landscape that everyone lives in and on is solid and sound and has got a blood flow through it that nourishes everyone powerfully. If you neglect nourishing who you are, where you come from and what you are about then you just become a team that operates skin deep; we have to be a team that operates bone deep.”
The All Blacks are unique compared to other teams, Enoka says, is in the transference of power from the coaches to the leadership group who set and enforce standards among the players. When aberrations occur, such as Aaron Cruden’s missed flight, a player is answerable to his team-mates rather than the coaches.
Ego has to be left at the door; there is a rigidly enforced “no d---head policy” in the squad and every player takes turns in sweeping the changing room clean after each game. “The jersey can hunt out flaws as quickly as you can look at it. The d***heads and the posers who are not genuine about adding to this wonderful legacy just don’t survive,” Enoka said. “They become one-Test ponies and get chewed up and spat out relatively quickly.
“As an All Black, you understand the team powers above the individual and you are part of a wider legacy, which has been passed down to you from the ages. In this particular period, it is your time and it is your moment. We want people to cherish and understand that and nourish it for the next generation, leaving it in a better place than what it was.”
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